This invention relates generally to infrared remote control systems and, more particularly, to universal remote control units wherein one remote control unit can control a number of various types of devices such as televisions, video cassette recorders (VCRs), cable boxes, disk players and other electronic equipment. The invention provides an improvement to such universal remote control systems for enabling the devices and remote control unit to be ready to communicate with each other.
Most manufacturers provide remote controls to control their equipment, and equipment of different manufacturers are often controlled with different remote control units. To minimize the number of individual remote control units a user requires, universal remote control units have been developed. Accordingly, infrared remote control units for controlling various functions of television receivers, VCR's, and auxiliary electronic equipment have become quite widespread in recent years. U.S. Pat. No. 5,255,313 issued to Darbee and assigned to Universal Electronics Inc., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,552,917 issued to Darbee et al and assigned to Universal Electronics Inc. disclose universal remote control systems.
In a common method of setting up and using a universal remote control unit, infrared ("IR") function codes that are to be learned and used are made available from the device to be controlled. The consumer or user is required to program or adapt the universal remote control unit to control the user's particular equipment, such as television sets, VCR's, entertainment media, and other devices. Alternatively, codes can be preprogrammed into the remote control to communicate with the equipment to be controlled. In either case, the programming and adaption of the universal remote control to the user's particular equipment can be demanding, exacting and generally frustrating for many users.